Japan's Road to a Cold Shut Down of Fukushima

An aerial view of explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on March 15, 2011.
(Flickr user: daveeza)

It’s been over four months since the earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which led to partial nuclear meltdowns in three of its reactors. Japan's government now says that those reactors are stable, and are headed toward a cold shutdown.

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We learned not to build nuclear reactors in a subduction zone, and if you do make sure they have adequate protections.

David Biello, associate editor at Scientific American, says that while this announcement is good news, there are still many problems that plant operators must assess. The most crucial is what to do with the hundreds of tons of reactive water that were contaminated in the process of keeping the reactors cool during the crisis.